One Finding In My Study Of The Nature Of Man

I have been conducting an informal study of human nature for many many years and have discovered many interesting things about man in general and about many individuals in particular.

One find: I have been zoche to teach for over 20 years and have taught thousands BS"D. How many phone calls or emails have I received from parents thanking me for all of the time and energy I invested in their child.

Zero.

I am not bitter or angry. This is clearly human nature, so how can I be upset at people for acting according to their basic [base?] nature. Plus I love their children so I don't need the thanks. But it is interesting.

Further question, how many communications have I received all together? Probably less than the fingers I have on one hand and the purpose was always to ask me to do something on their behalf [which I did and then didn't hear from them again...].

Interesting.

In addtion, with G-d's help and in His great mercy, I have over two thousand recorded shiurim with tens and probably hundreds of thousands of listeners over the last 10 years or so. How many calls or emails have I received to say "thank you - I really gained from the shiur" or something of the like.  Whatever you guessed, you are not far off [if you guessed a very low number].

When do people comment? When they have criticism. PERFECT!!:-) I LOVEEEE criticism. I get to much kavod, too many kibbudim at smachos and enjoy life too much. My neshama needs and craves criticism. One of the 48 ways to acquire torah is to love criticism. אוהב את התוכחות. But why do people only pipe up when they have criticism to voice and not when they have a good word?

Now, I don't give over Torah for the accolades. Otherwise, I wouldn't have troubled myself over two thousand times [multiply by the duration of the shiur plus preparation time plus uploading time]. If that were my intention I would have stopped long ago. I also don't do it for the money - because I don't get a penny. I do it because I love Torah, people and want to spread dvar Hashem for the good of the world and כבוד שמים. I had good teachers who educated me about what is important and I hope that on some level I have actualized their lessons.

What interests me is the nature of man to take without appreciation. THAT is fascinating.

There are very deep explanations and I hope to explain this in a future post[s]. Added insight will help us perfect our character.

A worthwhile endeavor....:-)